TOWN MEETING PREVIEW

Wednesday

May 2, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 2, 2007 at 2:12 AM

If you ask water quality task force chairman Frank Sampson about the estimated cost for the Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan – an article that will be voted on at town meeting – he’ll tell you it’s more about the town’s livelihood than money.

“This is a quality of life issue,” Sampson said. “We live in a sandbox [on the Cape] and everything ends up in the water.”The culprit is nitrogen, mostly derived from septic systems. A nutrient, nitrogen enables algae and sea lettuce to smother the water bottom, depleting eel grass and shellfish, and increasing harbor muck, Sampson said. Nitrogen, he added, “is spewing out of the harbors into the sound polluting the beaches.” Article 17, seeking $500,000 to fund the plan, has been recommended for approval by selectmen and by the finance committee.

Donna Tunney

If you ask water quality task force chairman Frank Sampson about the estimated cost for the Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan – an article that will be voted on at town meeting – he’ll tell you it’s more about the town’s livelihood than money.

“This is a quality of life issue,” Sampson said. “We live in a sandbox [on the Cape] and everything ends up in the water.”The culprit is nitrogen, mostly derived from septic systems. A nutrient, nitrogen enables algae and sea lettuce to smother the water bottom, depleting eel grass and shellfish, and increasing harbor muck, Sampson said. Nitrogen, he added, “is spewing out of the harbors into the sound polluting the beaches.” Article 17, seeking $500,000 to fund the plan, has been recommended for approval by selectmen and by the finance committee. The article would fund a study to determine the future design of a wastewater system that will clean the water in the most effective way and on a town-wide scale. The plan’s scope won’t just affect the water quality but the town’s future growth in affordable housing construction and concentrated development in certain areas, Sampson said. “The plan will be able to shape Harwich for years,” he said. The Massachusetts Estuaries Program has already conducted a study in Pleasant Bay, recommending a 50 percent reduction in nitrogen. If voters approve the article, the study will take an estimated three years to complete, Sampson said, and will include possible solutions to reduce by 90 percent the nitrogen levels in wastewater. After that, it will take 10 to 20 years to implement the plan. The article must be approved by a vote at town meeting and also on the May 15 Election Day ballot. If citizens give the go-ahead, Sampson said, the town will hire Cambridge consulting firm Camp Dresser & McKee to undertake the study, and it will form a citizens advisory committee to keep townspeople updated.The study will ultimately offer multiple solutions to curb the nitrogen buildup, from retrofitting septic tanks to installing centralized systems. Solutions like reactivating cranberry bogs, and taking advantage of bogs by reverting them back to wetlands could save money, Sampson said. He declined to speculate on any final costs of implementing the consultants’ plan.Sampson noted that, under the Massachusetts Estuaries Program, the town has to meet the total maximum daily limits (TMDL) standards regardless of whether Article 17 passes. At this point the TMDL isn’t set, but Sampson said he expects that information sometime in the fall. If town meeting votes no on the article, the state estuaries program would require the town to meet its TMDLs anyway, Sampson said.“We want to be very transparent so the public understands every step of the way,” he said.

Article 12: Police officersMore than half the time, there are just two police cruisers and one supervisor patrolling the streets of Harwich. It’s a presence, said Police Chief William Mason, that constitutes a minimum-staff-coverage level not appropriate for a town the size of Harwich. It’s one of several reasons why Article 12 is on town meeting warrant.The article seeks $440,000 to fund the hiring of six police officers. The finance committee is recommending an indefinite postponement, as the request “does not fit into the town’s current financial ability to fund without a Proposition 2 ½ override.”When two cruisers are patrolling the town, Mason said, there’s one officer in each car. Any number of incidents can quickly embroil both officers. For example, if the department responds to a domestic violence call, one officer deals with the suspect and one stays with the victim and completes the investigation. If there’s an accident, it could take both patrolmen and the on-duty supervisor to investigate what happened, direct traffic, stay on the scene while emergency rescue is called, etc.“It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure it out,” said Mason.“I understand and appreciate the position the committee and the selectmen are in,” said Mason, “and we’ve been working closely with town administrator James Merriam, who’s trying to cut costs elsewhere so that some department requests for staff can be met. We’re not the only department that needs [to hire].”If Merriam is able to provide some funds for the police department, the amount of money the article seeks could change before town meeting. And when joint dispatch between the police and fire departments is implemented, the chief said, the combined unit would result in the equivalent of 1.5 deployable police officers.Mason put forward Article 12, he said, because his department is operating at 1978 staffing levels, meaning he has the same number of deployable hours for officers on the streets as the department did 30 years ago.But the town has changed a lot in that time. “The population has increased, the calls have increased,” said Mason.By approving Article 12, residents would return police department staff levels to what they were before the failed override two years ago. But Mason is quick to point out that “this is not about getting back to where we were.” Rather, he said, “We are trying to address specific emerging public safety needs.” Mason listed those needs as follows:* Keep the streets covered without making officers work 16-hour shifts.* Address the need for a third cruiser to be on patrol on a more consistent basis. This would help with crime prevention and with response times to calls from citizens.* Deal with investigations. The department has two detectives but more investigators are needed to handle increases in drug activity, assaults and burglaries, and to enable proactive efforts against crime.* Maintain a police presence in the schools. School resource officers are currently assigned to Cape Cod Regional Technical High School, Harwich High School, Harwich Middle School, Harwich Elementary School and Holy Trinity School.* Reduce the spending of overtime funds on minimum staffing. Seventy percent of the overtime budget is currently used for minimum staffing. When factoring in vacation time, sick time, training sessions and other reasons that take officers away from the department, Mason said, it’s extremely difficult to properly staff the town with the number of officers on the force. “It’s a 24/7 operation,” he noted.As it stands, the department has 36 employees, including: one chief, two lieutenants, six seargents, two detectives, 21 officers and four dispatchers.If Article 12 passes and six officers are hired, Mason said Harwich would be on an average staffing level compared to other Cape Cod towns.

Other notable articles* Voters will be asked to consider a $44.5 million operating budget, which does not require a Proposition 2 1/2 override, and a capital plan with $2.5 million in capital spending for fiscal year 2008. The plan includes $500,000 to hire an architect and project manager to construct a new police station, $500,000 for the Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan and $1 million for maintaining roads and sidewalks. Capital spending for water projects total $1,200,000 and include $300,000 for water mains, $800,000 for water storage tank rehabilitation, and $100,000 to explore sites for new wells.* Article 11 asks for $79,984 to fund the hiring of one firefighter/paramedic for the Harwich Fire Department. The staffer would enable Station 2 in East Harwich to remain open more consistently. The station has been intermittently closed since the department lost employees in the failed override two years ago.* Ten articles were submitted by the community preservation committee and would be funded with Community Preservation Act funds. These include transferring $40,000 to the Real Estate and Open Space Committee to create an Open Space/Management Plan and update the Town Open Space Plan. Another $25,000 is sought for administration costs at the Community Preservation Committee, $100,000 for pre development of the Harwich Portugese Men’s Club’s Housing Development, $69,533 for predevelopment and housing costs at 916 and 920 route 28, $90,000 for development of Driftwood Lane housing development by Habitat for Humanity, $50,000 for restoration projects at Brooks Academy, and $5,000 for construction of a bocce court at Brooks Park. Dollar amounts are estimates, but the articles would be funded with Community Preservation Act funds.* Article 77 would provide $22,630 to help defray expenses at the Chase Library and Harwich Port Library, and Article 13 would allocate $12,163 to enable the Council on Aging’s outreach coordinator to work 35 hours instead of 25.* Among the special Town Meeting warrant articles is one seeking a bylaw change to allow a delay in the demolition of historically significant buildings from 90 days to 180 days, so that additional hearings can be held and opportunities to determine develop alternatives to demolition explored.